Google announces AI grammar checker for G Suite users

FILE - This Oct. 20, 2015, file photo, shows signage outside Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google said Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019, it will no longer require that its workers settle disputes with the company through arbitration, responding to months of pressure from employees. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

SAN FRANCISCO – Internet giant Google said Tuesday its artificial intelligence (AI)-based grammar checker is available for all users of G Suite, its corporate web tools and services, to help them improve writing.

"Using machine translation, we are able to recognize errors and suggest corrections as work is getting done," G Suite product manager Vishnu Sivaji said in a statement Tuesday.

He said that G Suite customers will see inline, contextual grammar suggestions in their documents as they type, just like spellcheck. "If you've made a grammar mistake, a squiggly blue line will appear under the phrase as you write it," Sivaji added.

He said Google has been working closely with language experts to decipher the rules for the machine translation model and used them as the foundation of automatic suggestions in Google Docs, which was all powered by AI.

Google grammar checker will be an extra tool for users to improve their writing alongside spellcheck, which was first introduced in Google Docs seven years ago.